The Fourth Estate

Liz Garbus' four part documentary for Showtime, The Fourth Estate (2018) is a fascinating and frustrating experience in light of the "facts don't matter/fake news president." The title of the series comes from the common term "the Fourth Estate" for the press' role as independent watchdog that keeps the government in check. The most demoralizing aspect of the recent political culture wars is the sad death of facts, Trump can sit up there and say the media is the enemy of the people" and that they spread "fake news." While Trump is constantly lying, fudging facts, and alluding to untruths all the while with no support, facts, research-it is all a "gut" feeling for him-which is always wrong. But the average Joe has no idea about he check and balances and the three support sources that need to get by editors before most articles see the light of day-this is coming from someone who almost considered journalism a career-today very much a thankless one. It seems to me the average person does not have the mental capacity to fact check or research about a topic to see if it is true or not-there are too many fake news outlets like Fox News that will broadcast any rumor and give it equal ail time as an established fact. These people scream "liberal" bias, but what about where they get their daily news? Most of the people I argue with have the same talking points that are "conservative" approved-I can predict their counterarguments. Most of the time they are rhetorically irresponsible or illogical. You can't have a "real" debate with these people because the parrot the company line. I feel that I can admit that Democrats are not always right and my complaints is that they are too much conservative and kowtow to the right, too "centrists." So I can criticize my own party, I have rarely hear a Trump supporter admit that he ever and made a mistake or misstep-that is very troubling, everywhere I look-sheep.